GMCSuspension.com
GMCSuspension.com
Your feed upload to Google Merchant Center failed, or products were uploaded but are now disapproved. The error message tells you something is wrong but not exactly how to fix it. This guide covers the most common Google Merchant Center feed errors, why each one happens, and the exact steps to resolve it. Feed errors that persist or affect large portions of your catalog can escalate to an account suspension, so fixing them quickly matters.
In Google Merchant Center, go to Products, then Feeds. Click on the feed that failed or has errors. In the feed status section, you will see a breakdown: approved, pending, disapproved, and errors. Click the number next to "Errors" to see the list of affected products and specific error messages. Each error tells you the product ID, which attribute is broken, and what is wrong. Start there and do not try to fix errors blindly without knowing which products are affected.
Google Merchant Center requires certain attributes for every product. If you leave them out, products disapproved immediately.
Missing ID: Every product must have a unique ID attribute. Google uses this to distinguish products. If the ID is missing, the product cannot be ingested. Solution: Add an ID attribute to every row in your feed. IDs must be unique. Use your internal SKU, a combination of SKU and variant, or a sequential number.
Missing title: Products must have a title of at least 1 character, though 20 to 150 characters is the recommended range. Missing title errors usually come from blank cells in spreadsheet feeds or malformed XML. Solution: Ensure every product row has a title. If exporting from your e-commerce platform, verify the export template maps to the correct column.
Missing price: Price is mandatory. Every product must have a price attribute with a numeric value and currency code. Solution: Ensure every product has a price field formatted as a number (e.g., 29.99) with the currency specified separately (e.g., USD) or combined (e.g., 29.99 USD).
Missing availability: Valid availability values are "in stock", "out of stock", "preorder", and "backorder". Missing availability causes Google to assume the product is out of stock and not show it. Solution: Add availability to every product.
Invalid price: Prices must be plain numeric values. Common mistakes include currency symbols (e.g., "$29.99" instead of "29.99") and commas as thousands separators. Solution: Strip currency symbols and formatting before including in the feed.
Invalid currency: Currency codes must be valid ISO 4217 codes (USD, EUR, GBP). "Dollars" or "USDA" will fail. Solution: Use correct three-letter ISO currency codes.
Invalid availability: The value must be exactly "in stock", "out of stock", "preorder", or "backorder" (case-insensitive). Variations like "in-stock" or "available" will fail. Solution: Use only the exact Google-accepted values.
Invalid GTIN or MPN: GTINs must be numeric and 8, 12, 13, or 14 digits long. If you enter a GTIN that is not numeric or is the wrong length, Google rejects it. Solution: Validate GTINs against your product database. If a product does not have a GTIN, leave the field empty or set identifier_exists to FALSE rather than entering a placeholder value. For details on GTIN requirements, see the GTIN requirements guide.
Special characters in feed file: If your feed is a CSV or TXT file, special characters (accented letters, emoji, curly quotes) can cause encoding issues if the file is saved as ANSI or ISO-8859-1 instead of UTF-8. Solution: Re-encode your feed file as UTF-8. In Excel, use File, Save As, CSV UTF-8.
Line breaks within attribute values: If your feed cells contain line breaks, the feed parser may split the cell incorrectly. Solution: Remove line breaks from all attribute values. Use Find and Replace in your spreadsheet tool to replace newline characters with spaces.
XML malformation: For XML feeds, all tags must be properly closed and nested. A single missing closing tag breaks the entire feed. Solution: Validate your XML using an online XML validator before uploading.
Invalid image URL: If you provide an image URL, it must be a valid, accessible URL returning an image file (JPG, PNG, GIF, WebP). Common mistakes include images returning 404 errors, images behind authentication, or malformed URLs. Solution: Test every image URL in a browser before uploading and ensure images are publicly accessible. For a deeper look at image requirements, see the GMC image requirements guide.
Invalid product link: The product link must be a valid URL pointing to the product page on your website. Broken links or URLs with unencoded special characters will fail. Solution: Verify each URL is accessible and use URL encoding for special characters.
When your feed has errors, follow this process:
The GMCSuspension audit checks all 52 policy requirements in 60 seconds. Beyond feed attributes, it checks price consistency between your feed and website, policy page accessibility, and schema accuracy. Run it before submitting any appeal.
Run Free AuditNo account required. Results in under a minute.
Use your e-commerce platform's native Merchant Center integration when available. Shopify, WooCommerce, BigCommerce, and most modern platforms have built-in Merchant Center connectors that handle formatting and validation automatically. If you are exporting manually, create a feed template with all required columns labeled clearly and test the export with a small subset of products first. Set up regular feed uploads, not one-time uploads. Prices and availability change, and a feed uploaded once and forgotten guarantees future errors. For a complete walkthrough of the requirements your feed and website must meet, see the GMC suspension checklist.
The most common GMC feed errors are: missing required attributes (ID, title, price, availability), invalid attribute values (price with currency symbol, availability spelled incorrectly), format errors (wrong encoding, line breaks inside values), invalid GTINs, and inaccessible image URLs.
Yes. Persistent feed errors, especially price mismatches or missing required attributes across large portions of your catalog, can escalate from product-level disapprovals to an account-level suspension for misrepresentation or policy violation. Fix feed errors quickly before they compound.
Usually one of three causes: (1) the feed file still contains an old price, (2) automatic item updates overrode your submitted price with a crawled price from your website, or (3) the price format in your feed was misread during import. Check the Products tab in Merchant Center to see the recorded price, then compare to your feed file and website.
If your products have a GTIN (UPC, EAN, or ISBN), add it to the gtin attribute. GTINs must be numeric and 8, 12, 13, or 14 digits. If your products do not have a GTIN (handmade, custom, or pre-GTIN-era products), set identifier_exists to FALSE for those products. Never enter a placeholder or made-up number.
Use your platform's native Merchant Center integration rather than manually exported feeds. Set up daily or twice-daily feed uploads. Validate feed files before uploading. Fix errors at the source in your product database, not by editing individual products in Merchant Center.